My Little Pony: The Test of Friendship

by McThriller

Chapter 4- The Sonic Rainboom

Author's Note:

Author's note: Finally a new chapter after a couple years of not doing this. Sorry it's probably not great but maybe someone might like this chapter. We will see.

Chapter 4 - The Sonic Rainboom

After a heated one sided conversation from Flamebolt to Pinkie Pie , he decided to look for Rainbow Dash on his own and shot into the sky leaving Twilight, Spike and Pinkie Pie in the dust. Twilight decided to follow after him and left Spike and Pinkie in charge of searching for Rainbow Dash. The two continued their search and ran into Applejack and Rarity, upon telling them the situation they agreed to also help with the search.

The four decided to split up and searched more ground for their rainbow maned friend but sadly, there didn’t seem to be any sign of her anywhere. With no luck they decided to regroup at the center of town.

“Y’all have any luck?” asked Applejack.

The mares and Spike shook their heads no in response.

“Seems like she hasn’t been in town at all today.” Spike sighed, feeling like the search was hopeless.

Everypony else followed suit and sighed, but suddenly a voice echoed from the sky, breaking them out of their slump. “Spike! Girls!”

They all looked up to see Twilight and Fluttershy descending from the sky.

“Twilight! Fluttershy!” They all shouted in joy from seeing their other friends.

The alicorn and pegasus landed in front of the group. “Applejack, Rarity I’m glad to see you both. Did Spike and Pinkie tell you about our situation?” Twilight asked.

The two mares nodded in unison.

“It seems Fluttershy is also aware of what is going on,” Rarity pointed out.

Twilight nodded, “She actually met our hot headed pegasus.”

“H-he was very scary.” Fluttershy replied, still showing a bit a fear from her earlier encounter.

Spike clenched his fist in anger. “That guy is out of line. First he almost makes Pinkie cry, now he’s scaring Fluttershy. He needs to be taught a lesson!” Spike pretended to be rolling his sleeves up.

Applejack lightly patted Spike on the head.“Easy there partner, I get he sounds like a jerk and all but we still need to find Rainbow Dash. But I promise I ain’t gonna let him off easy when I meet the stallion.”

Spike calmed down but still didn’t like what Flamebolt was doing to his friends.

“We have to keep looking for them, I don’t want there to be any hostility between the two,” said Twilight.

Suddenly a gust of wind picked up, blowing all the mares manes back and causing Spike to fall on his behind.

“Where the heck did that crazy wind come from?” Spike asked while getting back on his feet.

Pinkie looked to the sky up and had a bright smile on her face. “Look! It’s Rainbow Dash! And she’s with the other pegasus too!” Pinkie shouted with joy as she pointed to the two Pegasus flying away from the group and back towards the center of Ponyville.

“Well let’s high tail over there then!” Applejack announce and took off after the two with everypony else following her.

---

(Earlier with Rainbow Dash and Flamebolt)

Flamebolt had just heard Rainbow Dash’s name and stood on the cloud in shock. “What did you say your name was?” He asked to be sure he didn’t hear the pegasus wrong.

“I said...I’m Rainbow Dash! Nice to meet ya!” She repeated with a grin as she continued to flutter over him.

Flamebolt’s shocked face changed to a smirk and began laughing. “hehe ...finally...I finally found you!”

Rainbow had a puzzled look on her face. “You’ve been looking for me? What for?”

“I’ve been searching for a long time now....searching for somepony to push me to the limit! Somepony to give me the challenge I’ve been looking for! And finally after all this effort looking, I finally meet you! The one who pulled off the Legendary Sonic Rainboom!” Flamebolt shouted with determination while pointing at her.

“Oh you heard about that?” She grinned, “Yeah it was me, I’m the only pony to ever pull it off.”

“Is that so…Well I want to see this legend for myself,” he took a deep breath. “Rainbow Dash, I want a race!” He declared with determination in his eyes.

“You want to race me? The fastest flier in Equestria?” she bragged, “I don’t think that will be much of a race if you went up against me.”

Flamebolt could tell she had an ego but he knew how to push her into a race.“Oh I see, miss big shot acts all high and mighty just because she does a Rainboom. But when somepony wants to race, you coware like a chicken because you don’t want to lose your big title. ”

Rainbow’s eye twitched. “What did you call me?” she let out a low growl.

Flamebolt’s smirk grew, knowing he hit a nerve. “Oh I just called you a chicken. What? You don’t like being called that....chicken.”

Rainbow’s face grew a little red and her teeth were clenched a bit.

‘Just a little bit more.’ Flamebolt stuck his hooves under his armpits and flapped them like wings. He shifted his head forwards and backwards in unison with his body and imitated a chicken noise.

Rainbow exploded in anger. “Fine! You want a race hot-shot?! I’ll give you one!” She narrowed her eyes at him and inched closer to him, smacking him in the chest with her hoof. “Don’t come crying to me when you lose.”

Flamebolt only grinned, not phased by the smack and knocking her hoof out of the way. “Good....where we doing this at?”

Rainbow pointed her hoof to Ponyville. “We start at the center of town and fly to the farthest mountain over there.” She pointed to a giant mountain that was quite a ways away from town.

“Oh so a speed race then,” he pointed out.

“You want to see how fast I am right? Then put your money where your mouth is, follow me.” She took off, not giving him a chance to get ready.

“Somepony got up on the wrong side of the bed.” He couldn’t help but laugh a bit at her outburst. “Oh well, it’s time to get serious and own this mare.” Flamebolt took off after her, he still had her in his sights.

Flamebolt got close enough behind her to continue following her. He turned his attention towards Rainbow Dash, who was focused on getting to Ponyville. ‘This is weird.....I feel like I’ve met her before…but where?’ He thought for a minute. Before shaking the feeling off. ‘Forget it, right now I need to focus and be ready for this race. I may of been joking around earlier but I don’t plan on taking her lightly. I will beat her and get closer to my goal.’

The two flew swiftly through the air to the center of town and caught the attention of not just Twilight and the group but also the residents of Ponyville as well. They landed elegantly in the center, next to a water fountain and the residents were whispering in awe at seeing Rainbow Dash in her glory.

“Looks like somepony is popular around here,” Flamebolt said nonchalantly, not really caring what others were saying about her.

“Comes with being awesome,” she bragged.

“Careful now, that ego of yours will come bite you in the flank if you’re not careful,” he warned her with a grin.

“Oh please, if you think you’re going to win then you got another thing coming,” she equaled his grin with her own.

He rolled his eyes, “We doing this or what?”

“Somepony is ready to lose,” she gave him a smug look.

“Don’t take me so lightly. Just cause you pulled off the Sonic Rainboom doesn’t mean you can’t be beat.” He narrowed his gaze, getting in her face.

She also narrowed her gaze and got into his face, “Better not disappoint me.”

Their foreheads made contact as the competitors stared each other down. Both wanting to wipe the floor with one another. Tensions were high and everypony could feel the intense vibe the pegasus where throwing out. None of the ponies around knew exactly what was going on and stayed away from the two.

“Then let’s do this already!” he growled.

“Fine!” she growled back.

They broke away from their staredown and got into starting stances. With determined eyes they focused on the path in front of them to the mountains.

In unison they started counting down like their brains were in sync, “3…2…1…Go!”

They exploded from the ground and with tremendous force were already zooming through the sky. Ponyville was already becoming smaller and smaller with every passing second.

---

(Back with Twilight and the group)

Twilight and her friends were rushing to get to Ponyville. When they saw Rainbow and Flamebolt fly over them, they knew that all the searching was finally over but also needed to quickly catch up, not knowing what the two pegasus were up to.

“C’mon y'all we gotta catch up to them!” Applejack shouted while leading the pack.

Spike was barely keeping up with them since his tiny legs required twice the amount of effort just to go the same speed as ponies.

“Can we......slow.....down....” Spike manage to say while trying to gasp for air.

“Sorry Spike but there's no time to lose,” Twilight said as she lifted Spike up with her magic and placed him on her back, making it easier for him.

Spike finally started catching his breath,“Do you think Rainbow Dash will be alright around that guy?”

“Oh Spike, she can handle herself just fine. Let’s just hurry and find them,” Twilight assured him.

The group passed by a few familiar buildings, Sugarcube Corner, the Day Spa and the Ponyville Cafe, before turning a corner and reaching town hall which was the center building of Ponyville. They searched the area, trying to get a hint of where the two pegasus went.

Pinkie Pie turned to the fountain, she instantly smiled and pointed in the direction.,“Look! Look! I found them! Over there!”

Everypony looked to where Pinkie was pointing and sure enough, there was Rainbow Dash and Flamebolt riling each other up.

“It looks like they’re arguing about something...” said Fluttershy, still scared of the stallion from her earlier encounter.

The group hustled closer to the two and noticed they weren’t arguing anymore but were facing towards the mountains. As soon as they were about to reach the two, sounds of a countdown could be heard.

“Rainbow Da-!” Before her name could be said, the two pegasus took off towards the mountains.

“We just missed them…” Spike snapped his finger in frustration.

They all sighed as they were finally able to find their friend only for her to leave them behind again.

“What in tarnation are those two up to?” Applejack asked, squinting her eyes to try and keep them in her view.

“It looks like they’re racing,” said Fluttershy.

Spike got off of Twilight’s back, “That’s why he wanted to find Rainbow Dash? Just so he could race her?!” Spike was obviously upset with the reason. “We go through all this just so that jerk could get a race.”

“Oh Spikey wikey, please don’t make that face. You’re so much cuter when you’re smiling.” Rarity noted trying to keep the little dragon happy.

“Well it looks like we can’t do anything else now except wait for them to get back,” said Twilight.

Everypony was in agreement and then suddenly Pinkie was dressed as a cheerleader, “Go Rainbow Dash! You can do it!”

The group was used to Pinkie’s randomness so they just joined in and cheered for Rainbow Dash.

---

(Back with our competitors)

The two pegasus were flying at very high speed. At first Rainbow Dash thought this race was going to be easy but was surprised to see Flamebolt was keeping up next to her. She was still holding back but could tell he was too. ‘Not bad. For a stallion this guy is pretty good.’ She grinned. ‘This race might actually get good.’ She picked up her pace and sped farther ahead of him.

Reaching about halfway between Ponyville and the mountains now, Flamebolt could see her getting farther away from him. ‘She’s toying with me…’ He frowned. ‘I’m not gonna let her mess with me.’ He pushed his wings harder in rhythm to speed up to the point of finally passing by her.

Rainbow Dash was a little surprised to see him in front of her but only grinned and caught up to him. “I hope that’s not all you have to show me, I’m hardly breaking a sweat here,” she zoomed past him to take back her lead.

“You haven’t seen nothing yet.” He pushed himself harder to equal her speed and was by her side once again.

The two continued their race and seemed to be equal at the moment. As they continued getting closer and closer to reaching the mountain there speed would continue to increase to the point their signature speed trails were becoming visible. Rainbow Dash’s famous rainbow trail appeared and Flamebolt’s flame trail with electric sparks did as well.

She managed to pull ahead of Flamebolt before looping around the mountain with ease. With the quick loop she passed by Flamebolt before he looped around the mountain, gaining a huge lead.

Flamebolt saw her pass by him and needed to quickly catch up to her. Before he reached the looping point he noticed a bundle of clouds passing behind the mountains and had a confident smile on his face. “Perfect timing, get ready for my specialty Rainbow Dash.” As he passed by the mountain he charged straight into the clouds, before making impact he somersaulted and let his legs go into the clouds first.

Usually when a pegasus makes contact with a cloud they bust through it at high speed and force but with Flamebolt, the cloud seemed to suck in his body and absorb the blow before reexpanding and shooting him back in the opposite direction like an airborne trampoline. His speed seemed to increase by tenfold as he shot passed the mountain and towards Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash was on her way back to Ponyville thinking she had already won the race. “Well that wasn’t much of a race. I was hoping to go all out but it looks like he couldn’t keep up. Guess he was all talk.”

Her feeling of disappointment soon end when a ball of fire zoomed passed her. She lost control for a second before looking forward to see Flamebolt flying at incredible speed, gaining a huge lead on her and almost reaching Ponyville.

Her face was actually shocked seeing what just happened. She had to shake it off and focus. “Now that’s what I like to see! If I’m going to catch up to him, I’ll need to give him what he wants and that’s a good old Sonic Rainboom!”

She shot high into the sky to get a more dynamic trajectory for the Rainboom and when she felt she was high enough she dropped down at a sharp angle towards Ponyville. Her speed was picking up immensely as she felt the force of wind trying to push her back, but she continued pushing through that force and a barrier of white light started surrounding her.

Below, Flamebolt was still in hot pursuit of finishing the race. Soon Ponyville was coming into view and he could see all the residents of Ponyville surrounding the center of town. A mysterious checkered black and white finish line was present by the fountain and a giant banner saying finish line hung over the line.

“So much for being the fastest flier in all of Equestria. Didn’t even get to see the Sonic Rainboom. I knew it was just a hoax.” He was disappointed but had to finish the race. He saw the finish line in front of him as he was getting closer to town.

---

In town, Twilight and the group waited for Rainbow Dash to be the first one back and win.Pinkie Pie even set up the whole banner and finish just so the race seemed more legit. But to theirs and the whole town’s surprise, it wasn’t her they saw but Flamebolt, alone.

“No way! Rainbow Dash is about to lose?” Spike asked in shock.

“Never thought I see the day Rainbow Dash would lose in the sky,” Applejack responded.

“But where could Rainbow Dash be?” Rarity asked while scanning the sky.

Everypony was looking for her but Pinkie was the first to point her out in her uniform, “Oh there she is! She’s way up there!”

The others looked above Flamebolt and there she was coming down like a meteor ready to crash into the earth. Her speed was picking up tremendously as she was about to pass him. Everypony knew what she was about to do.

“Gasp! She’s going to do the Sonic Rainboom!” Fluttershy squealed out.

Every pony in town cheered her on as she was getting closer to Flamebolt.

---

Flamebolt could hear the cheers from the town but wasn’t really feeling like celebrating since he wanted a better challenge. He didn’t notice Rainbow coming down at him until he heard the whistling sounds from her speed. He looked around trying to pinpoint the noise but was too late to react when she appeared in front of him. The next thing he saw was an explosion and a flash of rainbows in a ring hit him and she was gone. The force of the rainbow explosion knocked him off his course for a moment. He spiraled out of control and was close to hitting the ground but got his trajectory right to avoid the ground and get back into the sky. It took a second for him to comprehend what happened until he looked up to where he was and saw the after effect of the Rainboom.

His eyes were almost sparkling, “The Sonic Rainboom……it’s real…” Flamebolt fluttered there, mesmerized by it.

He looked at the Rainbow ring for a while until he realized that he was still in a race. He followed the huge rainbow trail towards Ponyville and saw Rainbow Dash had landed in the center. “Oh right....I lost….” he dropped his head and glided his way to town.

In Ponyville, everypony saw the Rainboom happen and Rainbow entered town. She landed in front of her friends, catching her breath and sweating a bit from pushing her a bit too hard. The whole town was cheering for her victory. All her friends surrounded her and hugged her.

“You did it sugarcube!” Applejack cheered.

“Oh I knew you could do it darling,” Rarity added.

The others agreed and suddenly Pinkie appeared and gave Rainbow the biggest hug.

“You won! You won Rainbow Dash! Oh this calls for a celebration! A big party for winning the race! With cupcakes! Cookies! And so many yummy treats!” She shouted with joy.

“Thanks everypony but I knew I was gonna win,” Rainbow said while catching her breath.

“Oh really now? Cause if you didn’t use your Sonic Rainboom he looked like he was gonna win, questioned Twilight.

Rainbow awkwardly chuckled with sweat dripping from her forehead, “W-well I was just going easy on him until the end. Yeah that's it hehe…”

They all stared at her closely, not believing what she was saying.

All the staring got to her, “Okay! Okay! He was better than I thought!....He’s got a lot of potential to be a great flier....” she admitted.

They smiled knowing that she was being more truthful.

“Oh oh oh! We should invite him to our party!” Pinkie shouted.

“After what he did to you still want him to come?” Spike asked in shock.

“Of course silly! He’s going to be our newest friend!” she replied with a sparkling smile.

“You are something else Pinkie…” said Spike.

“Speaking of....here he comes now,” said Twilight.

Everypony was looking towards where she was looking at and sure enough, Flamebolt descended and landed right on the finish line, his head was dropped and his mane was hiding his face.

“That fella looks like he’s taking the loss pretty hard...” Applejack pointed out.

“M-maybe we can cheer him up,” said Fluttershy.

The others were surprised at Fluttershy since Flamebolt was the one she was scared of but agreed. Before anypony else took action, Rainbow was the first to trot past everypony and up to him. “Hey don’t feel bad now. You’re one of the few to ever push me to use the Rainboom. You should be proud of that.” She then smiled hoping that could cheer him up.

But he said nothing and remained silent while the others caught up to them and stood by Rainbow’s side.

“He’s really letting a simple loss get to him…” Rarity whispered to Twilight.

The others felt bad he wasn’t saying anything, but suddenly they heard sounds of chuckling and saw it was coming from Flamebolt. The chuckles started getting louder and transitioned into bursts of laughter which left everypony very confused.

“I think he might have lost it,” said Spike, a little bit afraid of what might happen.

Pinkie joined in with the laughing as well, “What are we laughing about?”

Flamebolt got control of his laughter which caused Pinkie to stop, “Hehe…You’re the real deal Rainbow Dash. Guess the legends were true, I finally got to see the Sonic Rainboom with my own eyes.”

“So…you’re okay that you lost?” Rainbow asked.

“I’m more than okay…in fact I’m excited. Finally, a pony that makes me want to train even harder than ever,” he had a huge grin on his face.

“Is that so?” she sighed in relief and matched his grin, “Well it’s gonna take a lot to beat me.”

“Just you wait, next time will be different,” said Flamebolt.

“Well I’ll be waiting for a rematch. You know where to find me,” Rainbow replied.

He turned away from the group, “Yeah, yeah, just don’t get sloppy the next time we meet.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle, “You sure are confident in yourself, I like that! What’s your name?” .

“It’s Flamebolt. Better not forget it now,” he answered.

“Flamebolt, that’s a pretty cool name. I look forward to racing you again,” she replied.

He smirked, “Same to you…see ya.”

He was about to take off but Pinkie appeared in his face. “Wait! Aren’t you gonna stay for the party?” she smiled as she got closer to his face.

“Party? Why would I want to go to something like that?” he asked while moving her face away from him.

“Because you’re our newest friend and we need to celebrate it that awesome race!” Pinkie answered.

Flamebolt’s blood was starting to boil as he began to clench his teeth. He took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, but his face still showed anger, “Don’t get any ideas now…I am not your friend and I never will be…”

Everypony could she his anger and was wondering why he was getting so angry.

“Why don’t you want to be friends with us?” Applejack asked.

“Flamebolt…Everypony needs a friend, especially you. Friendship creates bonds that last a lifetime.They help you through tough times and you can always rely on them, ” Twilight smiled while looking at every pony around her, remembering everything she went through with them.

“Yeah! I may be awesome but I feel more awesome having friends!” Rainbow added.

The six mares and Spike looked at each other with happiness feeling that their bonds were strong with each other.

Seeing all this was causing Flamebolt to lose his temper as his rage build more and more, “I don’t need to hear what friendship is like from you,” he pointed with force at Rainbow Dash and then pointed at Twilight, “Or the Princess of ‘Friendship’” he quoted. “Friendship is nothing but a lie! All you get is pain and suffering! These bonds you say can be shattered just as fast as they are built! All I need in life is myself and that’s it!” he growled and glared at them.

“Why would you say that…” Twilight said before being interrupted by Flamebolt.

“Enough with this ridiculous discussion! I’m done here! No more talk of this or else I’m really gonna explode…I’m outta here.” He blasted into the sky before they could say anything and was already out of site.

Everypony was surprised to see that outburst from Flamebolt. Fluttershy was extremely terrified and frozen in place.

“Jeez, after that race he still has all that energy to yell and fly away...He’s got a lot of issues,” said Spike.

“Well I never, that was quite rude of the stallion to yell at a lady like that,” Rarity huffed.

Rainbow looked in the direction where Flamebolt flew off to, a little bit angry after respecting the guy, “That guy better apologize if he wants a rematch next time.”

“Easy now everypony, obviously something happened to make him think like that. When he comes back, we’ll hear him out and be there to help show him the true meaning of friendship,” said Twilight.

The Elements of Harmony looked to the sky along with Spike, knowing that they had a new problem to solve but would be ready for when Flamebolt returns.

---

(With Flamebolt)

He was flying high into the sky, away from Ponyville but his anger still showed on his face, “I will never trust anypony as my friend…..never....ever....again.” He closed his eyes and a memory popped into his head but quickly ignored it. He needed to get away from everypony and wanted to be alone. He knew that there was a perfect place where no pony would ever go to and that place was the Everfree Forest.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why are you rewriting this story?

[McThriller]

9827018
Because I haven’t touched it in awhile and felt I needed to reinvent the story a bit and fix up the earlier chapters